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the use of
vectors and shading.
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b>
Most of you have probably noticed my tutorials
have been getting harder. *L* My goal is
to get you to do enough vector and shading tutorials that
you feel comfortable doing them.
Once you
master these two skills there isn't anything you can't do!! Sure, I could give
you
selections, but then what would I be
teaching? Don't be afraid, so what if your horse doesn't
turn out like mine and you need more practice, that's the
fun of learning and what makes your
horse
uniquely yours! You think I just woke up one day and could do these??? NOoooo,
it's
taken me years (2 to be exact) to get
to this stage of PSP`ing. I can't tell you how many
vectors I've done that ended up in the trash! But nothing
is worth doing without a little
aggravation, blood and sweat!! *LOL* If you truly are into
PSP and want to learn, then
practice,
practice and more practice is the key! I'd rather take one tutorial and work on
it for
days and know that I put everything
in to it that I possibly could to make it my best than I
had to do 50 selection, flood fill tutorials. Not that I
don't think those tutorials have their place,
they do for lower level skills, but if you want to advance
and be truly on a 10+ level then you
have
to learn vectors and shading!
I'm not sure what inspired this tut other than
loving horses. They are such beautiful and
graceful creatures to watch. For the last 10 yrs I've tried
my hand at sketching but never
could do
justice to the beauty of a horse. Although this one isn't perfect, nor does it
capture
their true beauty, it's much
better than any I have ever sketched.
This tutorial uses PSP, the tools and filters that
came in it. The mane I used Eye Candy
4000's fur.
It's
written using PSP7 but 6 users can easily do this tut too.
For those that do not have Eye Candy 4000 I am
providing my mane for you to use. Unzip and
open into PSP and set aside for later use. When you get to
the steps on making the mane then
copy the
one I've provided and add it as we go along. Duplicate and use deformation tool
to
angle the mane as needed.
Let's get started...
Open a 500 X 500 transparent.
The basic horse will be done in 4 layers. The face, which
includes the right ear, the neck, the left
ear and the lower mouth.
Set your background (fill) color to #C99761
Foreground color should be Null
Preset Shapes set to Ellipse, antialias and create as a vector both check.
Draw out a fairly large oval just slightly off
left center. This will be his head.
Click
on the Object Selector, then right click on your canvas and chose Node
Edit.
Below is a screenshot of where and
how I placed my Nodes. Remember that you can
click on a node to activate it, then right click on it to
change the shape to Cusp. By setting the
nodes to Cusp it allows the arms on the node to move
independently of each other. I have
left
this screenshot full size so that you can see the placement of the head on the
canvas along
with the node
placements.
Check your progress from time to time to see how it's
looking. Look at the screenshot
where his
ear meets his head. I pulled the nodes as close as I could so there wouldn't be
a
gap between there.
Once you're happy Convert to Raster and rename as
head.
I suggest you save NOW *L* Wouldn't want you to lose that!!
Now lets move to making the lower mouth.
Preset Shapes same as before. Draw out a small
oval just under the nose area of your head.
Object Selector, right click on canvas, choose Node Edit.
Here are the placements of my
Nodes...
You don't have to worry to much about the nodes that are on
the head area, those will be hidden
under
the head once we are finished. Add and change Nodes to Cusp as needed. When
you're
happy Convert to Raster and rename
as mouth. Move this layer below your head layer.
SAVE!!
Next comes making the left ear..
Preset Shapes same as before. Draw out an oval
about where you think the ear should be.
Rotate the oval just a little to the left. Object Selector,
right click on canvas, node edit.
Look at
the screenshot below at node placement...
When you're satisfied Convert to Raster and rename to left
ear. This layer should already
be below
the head layer but if not move it.
SAVE!
How's he looking so far?? The hard part of the vectors are over. All we need now is his neck.
Preset Shapes, same as before...
Draw out an oval from about where the head area between the
ears is, then all the way
down to just
above the bottom of the canvas. Here is what mine looks like with the
nodes
added and moved...
Once you're happy, Convert to Raster and rename
as neck.
This layer should already be
below your head layer, but if not move it to just above
Layer 1.
SAVE!
This is our basic horse! Take a break and come
back to it later if you're feeling tired.
I did my vectors one day and saved it as a psp then the
next day I started on the shading. If
I
get frustrated, I save what I've done that I like so far as a NEW psp file and
come back
to it later. I ended up with 7
different psp files on this one horse. That way if I change my
mind about something I did but it's been saved I can go
back to the one before that and start
over
from there. I know it seems a little silly but that's how I like doing it, if
you prefer a
different way, then that's
fine, do it your way.
Okay time to get started with making this horse come to life!
Make your head layer your active layer.
Below is a screenshot of the basic facial
features. I used vectors to make them, putting
each one on their own layer. This will give you and idea of
where to place the eyes and
other facial
features.
Pull this screenshot into PSP so
that you can look at it as your work....
It doesn't matter really at this point what color you use
because we can always change that as
we
go. Just give yourself contrasting colors so that they will show up okay
as you work. In
the screenshot above my
eyes show as a brown but make them Black on yours. The left eye
should be in two layers. One for the ball of the eye and
one for the outline. The left nose area
should also be on two layers.
Once you have the outline of the facial features
done, Converted to Raster and named,
then
make your head layer your active layer and let's start adding some colors to our
horse.
Go to Selections, Select all,
selections, Float, Selections, Modify, Expand by 1. Add a new layer
naming it shading face1.
First off I want you to set your foreground color
to a dark brown I'm using #553629
We will
be using the Airbrush Tool with these settings..
Draw out some strong details like I have in the screenshot
below..
Go to Effects, Blur, Gaussian
Blur with a radius of 3
This is all we
will put on this layer because we want those lines to be left
strong.
Add a new layer naming it face shading 2.
Now on this layer we will be switching colors
here and there as we go. I'm going to
give
you 3 different colors to work with, You may want to make yourself a color
swatch
using the colors so that it will be
easy to switch between the colors as you work on the
different layers. These are the 4 colors we will be using
for the facial areas.
The dark brown we
used above... #553629 #753F2C #76412D #A04420
Open a small transparent canvas and use the paint brush to
make a color swatch
of the colors.
First let's set our Airbrush to size 56
Leave all other settings as they are.
first color is #753F2C (this should be the second
color on your swatch)
Spray this color
pretty heavily on your horse's face, something like this...
Now let's change to this color #76412D (3rd color
on swatch) and spray some areas here
and
there like this...
Now this color #A04420 (4th color on swatch) spray
some light areas around
your horse's face
like this..
Now for our last color, I know I said only 3 but this isn't
a new color it's the dark color
we started
out with *L* Change to color #553629 (1st color on swatch) use this color
very lightly here and there to get some depth
shadows in your face. Once you have the
colors on, Go to Effects, Blur, Gaussian Blur with the
radius of 3 like we did before.
How's it look? Not quite dark enough?? Well here is what I
did.
I duplicated my shading layer
then lowed the opacity of that layer until I had it like I
wanted. I also duplicated my face shading 1 layer too,
because we want that layer bold
so it will
stand out underneath the other layers. This is what I ended up with...
I then added a new layer and sprayed on
some final touches in places I thought the
face needed. Working from dark to light shades of those
brownish red colors, and
changing size on
my Airbrush here and there too. Here's what my final face looks like...
(Excuse the areas I've jumped
ahead of you on).
Once you are happy with your face, hide all layers except
the shading layers and
merge them together
visible, rename to face shading.
From here down you won't have many screenshots of the facial
shading but take
the above screenshot in to PSP with you so you can look at it for
the details on the
shading as you work.
Now let's move to the mouth layer and make it our
active layer. Go to selections, Select
All, Selections, Float. Selections, Modify, Expand by 1.
Use the colors we used on our
face shading
to shade the mouth until you have it matching with the colors on his
face,
remember to use the Gaussian blur,
same setting as above. Once you're happy with it,
hide all layers except the mouth shading layers and merge
them visible, rename to mouth
shading. I
guess you're noticing I'm not merging my base layers with my shading
layers.
You can if you want to but I like
having my shading layers separate. I'm not sure why
I did this *L* I guess because I'm bad about changing my
mind!
I do hope you're remembering to
SAVE as we go along???
Now let's make the inside of our right ear active.
Go to Selections, Select all, Selections,
Float then modify, expand selections by 1 just like we have
been doing. I then used the
darkest
color #553629 and flood filled my inner ear. I then deselected and used
Gaussian Blur set to 3 to blur my inner ear some,
that's all I did to that layer.
Now make your left ear your active layer. Go to
Selections, Select all, Selections, Float
then modify selections by 1. Add a new layer. Use the
colors that we used on our face
to color
your ear. When you have it like you want, hide all layers except the
shading
layers for your ear and merge
visible.
I know we're starting to get a
lot of layers so make sure you start saving often so that
if those nasty little
gremlins decide they are tired of playing you won't lose anything
you've
done.
Make your left inner ear your active layer. Select
it, modify by 1 and flood fill it with
the
dark color #553629 like we did the right inner ear. Gaussian Blur at 3 just like
before.
How's your horse looking thus far?
Next I want you to make your right eyeball layer
your active layer. Zoom in on it so you
can see. Did you remember to make the outline around the
eye on a separate layer?
Hope so. Click on
the eyeball and make it your active layer. Set your foreground to
Black. Use your Paint Brush set to these
settings..
Look at the eye on the screenshot of my finished face, see
how I blacked the eye
all the way out to
the edge of the outline? As Em told me, "not much of the white area of
a horse's eye should show". Here is a screenshot
of a closeup of the right eye..
Don't worry about the shadow in the center right now, we'll
put that in using inner
bevel in a
next.
Once you have the black in like you want. Go to
Effects, 3D Effects, Inner Bevel.
Use
these settings...
Now go one layer below the eyeball and add a new
layer. On this layer
we will use the Paint
Brush with the same settings as before to add just a little white to
our eye.
Set foreground color to #AFA9A7 Zoom in close so that you
can see. Add 3 or 4 pixels
of the gray
color on the left side of the eye, something like this...
Make your left eye your active layer. Zoom in,
change foreground color back to Black.
Use
the Paint Brush, same settings, color in all of this eye black. There won't be
any
white area on this eye. You should
have something like this...
Whoa! I'm tired. Save
your work you've done so far. Come back to it later if you need
a rest. Believe me sometimes
it's best to do that. You will come back with a whole new
perspective.
Let's make the spot on his forehead the active
layer. Use your airbrush set to a slightly
darker color than what you made your spot. We won't select
it so be a little careful of the
over
spray. Spray a few little touches on it, then go to Blur and Gaussian Blur by
3.
Now go to your layer palette and lower
the opacity on that layer to around 40 or 45.
Now for the nose, let's start first with the right
nostril. Zoom as close as you need to so
you can see better. Make it your active layer. Go to
Selections, Select All, Selections, Float,
selection, modify, expand by 1. Add a new layer, with the
colors we used for the face use
the
airbrush to spray around the nose. Use the same settings on the Airbrush that
you used
for the ears and face playing
with the size to get one that works best for your nose. I used
the dark brown color with the airbrush to do the small area
that would be the opening in the
nostril
on a separate layer. Use Gaussian Blur of 2 and or 3 to blend your sprays.
Once
you're happy you can hide all other
layers and merge your airbrush layers visible.
Here's mine zoomed in so you can see it better..
Now move to the left nostril and do it the same
way with the airbrush, but use more of the
darker brown on it to make it a shade or two darker than
the right nostril.
Next comes the neck. Select the neck like we did
all the other layers. Modify Expand by 1
Add a new layer.
Remember how we made the hard lines on the face to get our
muscular look? That's what
we want here
too.
Use the Airbrush with these
settings.. foreground color set to the dark brown #553629
Here is how I sprayed my lines on the
neck....
Use Gaussian Blur set to 1 or 2
to lightly blur your sprays, remember we want this bold
because it will need to show through our other layers of
shading.
Keep selected, add a new layer. Raise the size on
your airbrush to about 20. Change your
foreground colors between all the browns like we did for
the face. Then Gaussian Blur at 3.
If it's
not dark enough then do like you did for the face and duplicate the layer and
lower the
opacity on it. Deselect once
you're happy, hide all layers except the shading layers and merge
them visible. Don't worry about the area between
the neck and the head right now, we'll work
on that once we have our mane in place and can merge all
our horse body together. Here's
mine...
Now for the mane...
Make your very top layer active. Add a new layer.
Set your foreground color to the
dark
brown! Airbrush set to the setting we use to make our heavy lines on the face
and neck.
Zoom in on your horse behind the
right ear. Spray a line starting behind the ear and
down his neck, follow the line of the neck. I used red in
the screenshot below so that you
could see
better...
Go to Eye Candy 4000 Fur and apply these
settings...
color is #553629
Go back to EC 4000 and apply the same
settings once again. Now one more time.
3
times total with those settings.
Now back to EC 4000 Fur and apply these settings
twice..
Once again but change the
direction in Basic only, to 301 and apply twice.
Once again change Basic direction to 253 and apply but only
once this time.
Now back to 301 for one
last time.
Click on the deformation tool and pull your mane
down a good bit to make it longer. Pull
the right side out some too if needed. Now go to Layers,
Duplicate. Use the mover tool and
the
deformation tool to move that layer next to the first one. Keep Duplicating the
layer and
moving it into position until
you have your mane like you want it. Look at the above banner
to see how mine looks!
That's pretty much it, touch up any layers you
want. Look at the face layer and the neck layer
where they meet. Does you mane cover it up so that it looks
okay? If not do some touch ups
using the
airbrush and the brown colors on a new layer. Then Gaussian Blur 2 or 3.
You can merge visible, copy and paste as a New
Image, export as a tube, or you can leave the
excess and put a background behind the horse, save as a gif
or a jpg.
I do hope you've enjoyed this tute. May God Bless
and keep you safe.
Until next time,
Connie
Designs By
Astro Index of
Tutorials
Tutorial written December 14,
2001
Published
Jan 1, 2002
©
Copyright 2001-2002 Designs By Astro
All rights
reserved.